Unwanted Future
by Sallywags
Summary: When Enterprise recives 5 unwanted guests from the future, what will Reed do when one turns out to be his descendent and a traitor to starfleet? Slight Voyager crossover.
1. Default Chapter

**Unwanted Future**

**I own nothing apart from any OCs.**

It was a slow day on Enterprise and the whole ship seemed to exude vibes of relaxation and contentment, things had been quiet for close to two weeks now, that alone should have tipped them off that something strange was brewing, but alas it didn't…

XXX

The ship was approaching a strange looking nebula, which had peaked their innate curiosity by giving off the most bizarre readings, when, in the middle of one of T'Pol's numerous scans of the phenomenon a strange pulse of light flooded the bridge, seeming to scan Ensigns Mayweather and Seto, as wells as the increasingly shocked and alarmed armoury officer Lt. Reed and the visiting chief engineer Commander Tucker.

Almost as soon as it had started the pulse of light disappeared, and in another bizarre flash of light five figures were deposited on the now tension filled bridge…

XXX

In the next moment alarms filled the air as Lt. Reed called for a security team whilst simultaneously grabbing and aiming a phaser menacingly at the five unknown people.

However bizarrely four of these uninvited guests appeared to be human, whilst the last, with her pointed ears and dour expression, was clearly Vulcan, so just where had these people come from? And what exactly were the bizarre black uniforms with strips of vibrant red, yellow and blue, which four of the five were wearing? What exactly was happening here?

XXX

True to form Captain Archer reacted with calmness and assurance to the bizarre situation in front of him, carefully taking stock of the people in front of him, and assessing what threat they posed to his ship.

Surprisingly the captain discovered that no only were the uniformed people in front of him unarmed, they also seemed more than a little surprised to find themselves on his bridge, in fact they seemed positively stunned to be there, and most surprising of all was their youth, not even the Vulcan girl seemed to be any older than twenty.

They were also an odd group and seemed to have no prior acquaintance with one another, if their rigid postures and suspicious glances at each other were any indication.

Calmly Jonathan surveyed the group listing what he saw, a pretty, wide eyed black girl, her hair long and braided tied in a ponytail at the base of her skull, wearing a uniform with a red stripe, and one pip, an ensign perhaps? She looked terrified and was gnawing her lip nervously looking towards the others with her for support.

There was also standing behind the girl, a young innocent looking oriental man, with short black hair and puppy dog eyes, wearing a yellow stripe on his uniform and a nervous slightly embarrassed expression on his face, hardly a threatening looking soldier for an invasion force, and like four of the others he seemed to be human.

Next the captain saw another young man, this one with tanned skin and sandy blond hair with familiar blue eyes, he was also wearing a yellow stripe on his uniform, and had positioned himself at the front of the group, seeming to protect the others, a determined, though increasingly alarmed expression on his young face. It was interesting, the captain noticed, that the young man's expression seemed to be growing more and more alarmed as he surveyed the Enterprise's bridge with something akin to …recognition? Archer shook his head at the thought, how on earth was that possible, the crew of Enterprise were the only humans in deep space, he must have been mistaken in his assessment.

Positioned in the centre of the group was the delicately beautiful Vulcan girl, she was wearing the same uniform as three of the humans, only hers had a blue stripe, she had very long black hair, unusual for a Vulcan, which was plaited and fell down her back to her waist, with frighteningly human looking blue eyes, again not normal for a Vulcan, her expression however, showed with no doubt that she was however a Vulcan, it betrayed nothing of whatever emotion she was feeling, though her strange eyes showed some brief glimpse of… fear?

The one who Archer was most interested in however was the girl positioned to the side of the group. She was also clearly human and very beautiful, but she clearly wasn't a part of the group. She was leaning against a wall with a practised nonchalance, a bored expression on her strikingly beautiful face, watching the situation in a detatched manner studying everyone and everything in a way which showed that she viewed them as a possible threat, and was the only one clearly armed, twirling one gun with her right hand, with several other nasty looking phaser like weapons holstered on a chunky leather belt, wrapped around a short black leather skirt. She was wearing knee high leather boots and a low cut, black, tank top, with an oversized black suede jacket toping off her ensemble. Her whole posture screamed attitude, from the scar, tracing a line down the side of her face from forehead to chin, half hidden by her long curly reddish brown hair to her, familiar, fierce blue grey eyes which were so intense that Archer had trouble holding her stare.

This girl was also the one that Lt. Reed viewed as a threat, his phaser being levelled directly at her, though she seemed to find it not the least bit intimidating. The rest of the group appeared not to notice her and she made no move towards them, however despite her arrogant, unyielding stance, she was quite possibly the youngest person in the room…

XXX

His first analysis of their uninvited guests complete Captain Archer felt the time was right for introductions, and explanations… "I'm Captain Jonathan Archer of the Starfleet starship Enterprise…", he began carefully, trying not to frighten his young guests.

"Sorry for interruptin' Cap'n but we know who you are", interrupted the sandy blond haired young man at the front of the group, in a thick southern accent.

"You do?" stated Archer somewhat sceptically, how on earth did these people know about him?

"I doubt there's anyone who doesn't." muttered the young oriental man at the back of the group, looking down at the floor as though it were something very interesting and starting to nervously chew on his lip, successfully puzzling the entire bridge crew as to his meaning.

"What do you mean?" asked Hoshi anxiously, her natural curiosity seeming to finally overpower her earlier fear at the strange situation.

"Perhaps I should explain," announced the previously silent Vulcan girl, "it would appear that we have travelled more than 200 years into the past, for what reason I have yet to ascertain…"

"You don't seriously expect us to believe that cock an' bull story…." Interrupted Trip heatedly, to which the Vulcan girl's only reply was to raise an eyebrow in seeming amusement.

"As insane as it sounds it's the truth", stated the sandy haired boy as calmly as he could manage, "Though put a little more bluntly than I would have said it…" he muttered, shooting the unapologetic Vulcan girl an exasperated look. Then pre empting the Captain's next question he calmly stated, "And no, we have no idea how we got here.", looking around to see the nods of agreement from his uniformed compatriots, and still not noticing the other, thus far silent girl, who was, at present, occupied in a staring contest with the ship's armoury officer.

"That seems unlikely," stated T'Pol coolly, raising an eyebrow in annoyance at her fellow Vulcan, "The Vulcan science directory has found time travel to be impossible."

"Feels pretty possible from where I'm standing." Snapped back the sandy haired boy in irritation, running a hand though his messy hair, and shooting T'Pol a look of disgust, earning himself a brief smile from Trip.

"The Vulcan Science Directory was mistaken in this instance." Stated the other Vulcan calmly, "Time travel is indeed possible, though infinitely improbable in most instances."

Before an argument could begin between the two Vulcans the Captain interrupted again, "But that still doesn't explain…"

"No, it doesn't" said the boy in resignation, "The fact is we're here, no matter how impossible it seems."

"Well do you at least have names?" asked Archer, impatient to get at least some information out of these strange people.

"You see I think that's where this gets interestin'…" began the blond boy, shooting a worried glance at Trip.

"Yes" encouraged Archer anxiously awaiting more information.

"I guess we better introduce ourselves then" he muttered distractedly seemingly quite distressed with the situation, though realising that he had to tell them the truth, whether he liked it or not.

"Ensign Charles Tucker, Starfleet Registration number #####-#######-### (insert a number), current assignment, engineer, Federation Starship Enterprise NCC 1701-D." he stated, to the silent disbelief of the entire bridge crew, "But y'all are welcome to call me Chase." He said, grinning disarmingly.

"You actually expect us to believe you!!" yelled Trip seemingly in shock about what he had just heard.

"Not now Trip!" shouted Jonathan irritably, wanting to hear what the others would say, and therefore willing to suspend his disbelief for the time being, he shot his friend a quieting look, and then turned expectantly to the Vulcan girl, beckoning her to speak.

"Ensign T'Prin, Starfleet registration number #####-#######-### (insert a number), current assignment, science officer, Deep Space 7." Stated the Vulcan calmly, before turning, and passing the spotlight to the young black girl.

"A Vulcan in the fleet, now I've heard everythin'!" muttered Trip under his breath as the other girl began to talk.

"Ensign Angela Mayweather, Starfleet registration number #####-#######-### (insert a number), helm officer, Federation Starship, Athena NCC 1549." She stated nervously, looking determinedly anywhere but at Travis's slack jawed expression, or subsequent disbelieving glare.

The young oriental boy was then nudged by 'Chase' and began to talk as well, in a nervous quiet voice, "Ensign Harry Kim, Starfleet registration number #####-#######-### (insert a number), awaiting orders on Federation Space Station Deep Space 9."

Chase seemingly prepared to talk again, opening his mouth, but was interrupted by the girl off to the side of his group, who he had yet to notice.

"Don't I get an introduction?" she drawled in a soft British accent, moving her eyes from Lt. Reed and sauntering up to stand next to a shocked looking Chase, whilst the rest of the group mysteriously began to back away…

XXX

The look in Chase's eyes as he gazed at the calm, unruffled girl in front of him was indescribable, it was pure unadulterated hate, disgust, and something else…

"Ava Reed" he spat out the name disgustedly, looking at her as though she were something that he had stepped in, and completely forgetting where he was for a second, he missed the startled and disbelieving looks the bridge crew were giving them, and the look of shock, horror and finally disbelief on Malcom's face, though Ava didn't, her sharp blue grey eyes took in every detail.

"I see the Academy is still telling stories about me." She stated, amusement glittering in her cold eyes, "I'm touched." She stated, in a voice positively dripping with sarcasm, as she began to circle Chase, viewing him as a predator would view prey.

"Yeah, I was warned about you." Stated Chase with false bravada, glowering at the girl in front of him, looking at her with disgust he stated with vehmence, "Maquis scum!"

"Guilty as charged." She said, smiling sardonically at the increasingly nervous ensign in front of her, and twirling her gun in a threatening manner, "Now would someone care to explain to me what the fuck is going on?" she questioned angrily, glaring around at the stunned bridge crew for answers.

"You mean you don't know?" questioned Chase disgustedly clearly believing that she was the cause of all their problems.

"Of course I don't know!" snapped Ava angrily, "The Maquis has more important things to do than kidnap, and transport through time a bunch of green Ensigns with the combined IQ of candy floss, what exactly would we have to gain from a stunt like this?" she finished angrily, glaring at the bigoted idiot in front of her.

"Look I don't know what is going on here, or what you two have against each other but, I want some proof as to your claims, and until I get it I think it might be safer for all of us if you stayed in the brig." Stated Archer, as calmly as he could manage, gesturing towards the newly arrived security officers, and showing that he clearly did not believe their crazy story in the slightest.

"Listen Cap'n I know how this sounds but you gotta believe us, why would we lie about somethin' like this?" Chase said, trying to appeal to the Captain's reason.

"Maybe to gain access to Enterprise's technology..." began Trip angrily.

"Oh please!" interrupted Ava with a derisive snort, "I've seen Ferengi garbage scours with better warp engines, and as for any other technology I doubt there is a single thing of value on this entire bucket of bolts!" she finished, curbing the urge to laugh hysterically at the ridiculous suggestion and ignoring Trip's expression change to one of furious indignation, clearly about to launch into a full scale tirade about the merits of Enterprise's engines, that is before Chase interrupted.

"We're not lying!" he shouted, throwing his hands into the air in exasperation, "How can I prove that to you?" he finished more quietly, throwing a pleading look at Archer.

"I think I know how," began Harry quietly, "Its just a theory but," he paused taking a deep breath, and looking up bravely to face his audience, "Does anyone else find it odd that all of us who were transported here, to this ship, this time, also have an ancestor on board?", he finished quietly allowing what he had said to sink in.

"So you think that by taking DNA tests you can prove your claims?" questioned Archer quietly, trying not to frighten the boy.

"Yes sir." He agreed quietly, catching the Captain's eye, and for a moment reminding him painfully of Hoshi, no need to ask who his ancestor was….

**Hey, this is the beginning of a plot bunny I've had for ages so please review and tell me what you think!**

**Thanks! XXX**


	2. Ava's Reaction

Unwanted Future

I own nothing, apart from any Ocs.

"Cap'n you're not seriously buyin' this are you?!" accused Trip heatedly, clearly not happy about the idea that his Captain might be buying into what these clearly insane people were telling him.

"I don't know Trip," began Archer tiredly, racking a hand through his hair, and seemingly at a loss for what to do in this situation, "this situation is very strange, but suppose they are telling the truth, the DNA tests would prove it." He finished, gazing comfortingly at the exceptionally nervous Harry, who seemed to now be shocked at his own bravery for suggesting such a thing and was now backing himself back into the centre of his group, to wait with his compatriots to hear their fate.

"I can't believe you're actually agreeing to this!" spat Trip angrily.

"Well I didn't ask for your opinion on the subject, **Commander**." stated Jonathan coldly, glaring in irritation at his furious subordinate.

"No, sir." Trip acquiesced, still glowering at their uninvited guests, who were in turn all now gazing with intense distrust at a seemingly relaxed and oblivious Ava, who had moved to lean casually against Travis' console.

"Well then," began Archer in a forced jovial voice, "If you people would please go with our security officers you will be escorted to sick bay, where Doc Flox will be able to test your DNA against our files, and prove your claims, one way or the other, so if you could just hand over any weapons and go with them…" he explained, gesturing towards the security officers, who were now purposefully moving towards the group at the front of the bridge

"I'm afraid Captain that I can't allow that to happen," stated a cool British voice at the side of the bridge, directing all attention to herself. It now seemed that during Archer's announcement she had managed to grab hold of Ensign Mayweather, and now had him, positioned slightly in front of her, one arm pinned behind his back with a weapon held to his temple, in an extremely threatening manner, how she had done this so fast, no one was quite sure, but she had appeared to take even Lt Reed by surprise with her actions.

"Now I don't know why I'm here, but I am not about to entrust my safety to a bunch of Starfleet idiots, and there is no bloody way that I am handing over any weapons…", she finished menacingly, her blue grey eyes flickering dangerously and her stance defiant as she stared down the Captain, and anyone else foolish enough to try to catch her eye. "So if you don't mind I think I'll be leaving now…" she stated, pressing her gun painfully into Travis' temple so hard that the poor kid was shaking in fear, in an effort to emphasise her point.

"And where exactly are you gonna go? "interjected Chase rationally, "We're in the freakin past!" he finished dramatically, waving his arms around the bridge to emphasise the point.

"Doesn't matter," Ava exclaimed angrily, "Just as long as I'm off this friggin' Starfleet ship I don't much care where I go!" she finished, jabbing her gun at Travis' head in a threatening manner.

"We can't do that." Exclaimed Archer calmly, "Assuming you are from the future, your presence in this time could cause any amount of damage if we let you go, you're our responsibility…" he trailed off, looking pleadingly into Ava's eyes, "Just let Travis go," he asked kindly, "you're not actually gonna hurt him…"

"Ha!" Ava interrupted, laughing at the idiotic man in front of her, who presumed to know what she would do, "You don't know anything about me Captain so don't presume to, who's to say I wouldn't kill him, if it suited my purposes."

"She's right Cap'n," began Chase warningly, "you don't know her, she's a murderer, she'd kill him without a second thought…"

"No, she wouldn't," stated Harry confidently, "because if she does it changes the timeline," he explained patiently, catching Archer's eye, "She could prevent her own birth, and I'm sure you wouldn't want to do that." Harry finished, turning his innocent brown eyes on Ava with a patient expression on his young face.

"I'm sure that would be no great loss to humanity…" muttered Ava under her breath, pushing the shell shocked Travis back into his chair, where he proceeded to gaze at her warily, rubbing the feeling back into his previously pinned arm as she carefully dropped her weapon to the floor, before unholstering and repeating the move with the other weapons she was carrying. "There, you happy now!" she spat irritably, gazing up into Archer's worried face and determinedly ignoring the look of triumph that flitted over Chase's features as the group turned to leave with the security officers, as requested, Lt Reed bringing up the rear, his eyes never leaving Ava lest she try another stunt.

XXX

During the ride in the turbo lift down to sick bay, with the security officers, Malcolm noticed that the rest of the group seemed determined to stay as far away from Ava as was humanly possible, no mean feat in a cramped turbo lift, though she seemed to be ignoring the situation, staying completely silent, though her posture still showed the relaxation and nonchalance which she had displayed on the bridge, though he was not about to be fooled by that again…

Her whole casual demeanour seemed to be unnerving Malcolm's security officers, but despite her actions on the bridge Malcolm could not help but be intrigued by this woman, no girl, in front of him, (She couldn't be a woman, being clearly no older than twenty, if that, probably only in her late teens), she had successfully taken a member of the crew hostage right under his nose, so fast that he could do nothing to prevent it, an impressive feat, he was going to need to watch this one closely…

This girl was a mystery to Malcolm, she had showed up on his bridge in a flash of light, and no explanation for how she got there, armed to the teeth with an array of strange, and deadly looking weapons, her youth and beauty belying what he now believed to be considerable tactical knowledge and combat experience. She also claimed to be a descendant of his from the future! The idea was completely laughable! He had no plans to marry and no intention of starting a family, not to mention that the idea of time travel was completely impossible, but nevertheless, he found himself drawn to this strange girl in front of him and he couldn't explain why…

He also had no idea why the other people with her were so afraid of Ava, they wouldn't go near the girl, and the boy, Chase, had called her a murderer, and 'Maquis scum', whatever that meant. However despite what he had seen on the bridge Malcolm still could not quite equate the pretty young thing in front of him with a cold blooded murderer, it didn't seem possible, surely Chase was mistaken, for despite her tough attitude, and interesting attire, this girl was too young to be a killer.

XXX

Ava meanwhile was positively fuming, her relaxed stance in the turbo lift belying her turbulent thoughts, "Just what the fuck is going on here!?" thought Ava angrily, "One minute I'm on Liberty (a Maquis ship) in the badlands, and the next I'm on a fucking Starfleet star ship 200 years in the past, and god knows how many light years away from where I was, where not only am I stuck with a bunch of green Ensigns who have been told all about me (I can thank fucking Starfleet Academy for that one!) but I'm also stuck with one of my ancestors, and not just anyone, no that would be fair! I'm stuck with, Admiral, no Lt Malcolm Reed, the first one of my ancestors to enter Starfleet, who broke family tradition to do it, the one I most wanted to be like, who I've always admired, always wanted to meet, and now, not only do I meet him, but he's going to hate me when he finds out what I've done! Bloody hell, someone up there must really hate me, that or they have a really twisted sense of humour, sending me here **after** I've royally fucked up my life!" she internally raged, though she gave no outward sign of it.

Ava soon tired of her internal musings, and turned instead to discreetly watch Lt Reed, his blue grey eyes, so like her own, were slightly glazed over in appearance, he too appeared to be lost in thought, perhaps about her? She dismissed the thought as ridiculous, after all, why on earth would he be thinking about her, he didn't believe that she was who she claimed to be, so why would he bother thinking about her? It didn't matter, she convinced herself, what he thought of her, he was long dead anyway, besides, the rest of her family hated her, so what did one more person matter anyway? Besides she probably deserved his hate, though the judgement of the Starfleet idiots she was with she could live without, what exactly did they know about her life anyway? All they had heard about her was Federation propaganda, as if they had any idea why she had done the things she had, or what her life had been like, she was grateful at least for that, no one deserved to suffer the way she had…

"Its ironic really," thought Ava tiredly, "that of all my upstanding, Federation loving relations it was me that got sent through time to meet him, anyone of them could have made him proud, but me… he'll be ashamed to be related to me, like the rest of them…, he doesn't deserve this…" she thought in a self pitying way.

She soon snapped herself out of her self pitying thoughts though, after all, what did it matter anyway? "What's done is done, you can't change the past, you can't change who you are and its not as though I really regret doing what I've done." She thought, trying to convince herself that she really didn't care.

"I've been through worse than this and survived." She thought reasonably, "I probably won't even have to stay here for long anyway, and even if I do, it makes a change from fire fights with Cardassians and fighting for survival on a daily basis in the Badlands, or assassinations of Cardassian officials… No don't think about that!" she scolded herself harshly, "You did what you had to, you got revenge for them, it may not have been the right thing to do, if such a thing exists, but its done now and you don't regret it, you'd do it again, besides, what else were you going to do? Join Starfleet like you planned? Don't be ridiculous! The Federation is full of hypocrites and liars who care more about continuing their alliance with the Cardassians than protecting innocent people who are relying on them! You did the only thing you could do in the circumstances, joining the Maquis was the right thing to do!", she thought heatedly, but then realising that she was once again bogging herself down in the past, Ava squashed down her feelings and instead tried to figure out what exactly was going on.

It occurred to her that, her being sent here was unusual, why her in particular, why not another family member, and why were the others chosen? It seemed to her, almost as though someone had **deliberately** picked people who would stir things up the most on this ship, almost as if they wanted to watch the fireworks when things started to kick off, but surely that was a bit far fetched, after all, why would anyone waste their time pulling a stunt like this?

Ava's musings were finally interrupted when the turbo lift arrived at the deck which sick bay was located on. She allowed herself to be led out of the turbo lift, down the corridor towards sick bay, determinedly ignoring the appraising look of the security officer behind her, she was used to guards staring at her, and though she didn't like it, she had learnt the hard way, that confronting them about it was not the best idea, as the numerous scars on her back would attest… She wondered how the ship's doctor would react to all of her scars…

XXX

Meanwhile Flox had been informed of the strange group approaching sick bay for DNA tests and was prepared for their arrival, he had been instructed to not only perform the tests, but to give each person in the group a thorough physical, to check that they weren't harbouring any potentially dangerous infections etc. He was therefore quite prepared for their arrival, and within only a few hours, despite the presence of the hovering security team, he had the results that the Captain wanted, and a few other surprises, which might not be quite so welcome…

XXX

At 1800 hours that night the Captain had called for a senior officers meeting in the briefing room, finally they were going to find out the truth about their mysterious guests, and whether they were who they claimed to be…

"Well Captain," Flox began, without preamble, once the meeting had been called to order, "My DNA tests of these people have proved to be rather illuminating, there can be no doubt as to their conclusiveness, they clearly show that these people are descended from the crew members they claim to be descended from, most likely about four generations removed." He paused waiting for what he had said to sink in before continuing, "Ensign Kim, is clearly a descendant of Ensign Seto, Ensign Tucker is clearly descended from Commander Tucker, Ensign Mayweather from Ensign Mayweather, Ensign T'Prin from Sub Commander T'Pol and Miss Reed from Lt Reed."

"And you are sure about this doctor?" questioned Archer, disbelief still clear in his eyes despite the facts, whilst the rest of the senior officers appeared to have been stunned into silence.

"Yes, Captain, as I have said there can be no mistaking the genetic traits that were clearly present in their DNA, and perhaps more conclusively, during their physicals, I found evidence of broken bones, healed with technology centuries more advanced than our own medical technology." Stated Flox, his voice telling just how certain he was that these people were who they claimed to be.

"Although," Flox began, confusion apparent in his voice, "I was quite surprised when in Ensign T'Prin's genetic code, I found sections of human DNA, I would surmise from the amount present, that a great grand parent was human, and also that another great grand parent was another species, one which I am not familiar with, though who is clearly telepathic, as the girl's own telepathy appears to be far more advanced than a normal Vulcan's." he finished, seemingly puzzled by the Vulcan girl's strange genetics, though not as puzzled as T'Pol looked.

"However," Flox continued, his ominous tone a warning about just what he had discovered, which successfully managed to recapture the attention of his audience, even a shell shocked Lt Reed, "I'm afraid that my scans also revealed something a little more sinister in nature about Miss Reed…"

Thanks for reading, now please review and tell me what you think of this weird little story that just won't leave me alone, good or bad I want to know!

**Thanks!**

**XXX**


	3. An Interesting Briefing

**Unwanted Future**

**I own nothing, apart from any OCs.**

"Doctor?" questioned Malcolm anxiously, determined to hear whatever the doctor had to say about this girl, who could well be related to him, and not thinking to mask his concern.

Flox looked up, briefly catching Malcolm's eye, and using that moment to communicate just how worried he was about Ava, turning to the Captain he continued his assessment, "It would appear Captain that Miss Reed has been physically tortured and abused for a sustained period of time, I would estimate between 2 years and 18 months, beginning approximately 4 years ago. The injuries are quite extensive, some even life threatening, and range from obvious lash scars on her back, to burns and knife wounds, broken bones and cracked ribs, which I might add have been either poorly mended or left to heal naturally, as well as some more exotic torture implements." Using a view screen he then brought up an image of Ava's scan, focusing on her central nervous system, where, at strategic points all over her body, strange needle like objects were clearly visible.

"It is my belief that these objects are torture implements." Flox explained, to the growing horror of his audience, "they have been implanted in her nervous system, and when activated by a signal, send small bolts of energy through the nervous system, I believe the pain would be quite agonizing." The doctor finished dryly, clearly disgusted with what he had discovered.

"In addition to this," continued the doctor, "the more recent of her wounds are consistent with injuries sustained either in battle or from the dangers of life on a star ship, plasma burns etc, though what that signifies I am not certain."

"There is also," the doctor explained, "the matter of some kind of brand, burned into her skin in two places," pressing some keys he replaced the previous image on the view screen with one of a strange alien brand, clearly burned into the skin, consisting of a sharply pointed symbol, with several figures at the side, possibly numbers in an alien language, "what the symbol means I have no idea, it may be something as simple as a tattoo, though considering the other evidence I would be more inclined to believe that it is a marker from some kind of alien prison camp."

His assessment finished, the rather shell shocked Denobulan doctor resumed his seat at the briefing table. For a moment everyone was silent, but Malcolm had to know one thing…

"Doctor, how old would Ava have been when all of this was happening?" questioned Malcolm furtively, almost afraid to hear the answer to this question.

"I would surmise that she would have be been between the ages of 15 and 16 when this happened, though I can't imagine why anyone would do this to a child." Explained Flox, who was, as a parent scandalised that anyone could be so heartless to someone so young.

"Oh." Exclaimed Malcolm quietly, he had thought that things couldn't get any worse, but apparently he was wrong.

"Is there anything else we should know doctor?" Questioned Archer gently, realising how upset Flox was about this turn of events and not wanting to upset his friend any further.

"No Captain, I believe I have told you all **pertinent** information." Sighed the doctor tiredly, it had been a very long day.

"Alright then," flicking a comm. button Archer then instructed the security team guarding their guests to bring them to the briefing room, "lets see if we can get any more information from our guests." He stated, turning to look at each of his senior officers to gauge their reactions, none of them looked happy about this turn of events. "And perhaps it would be best if we don't mention what we've learned about Miss Reed for now." He admitted, a tone of warning clear in his voice.

At this point the doors of the briefing room opened, admitting their somewhat irritated guests. "Please have a seat." Gestured Archer calmly, watching as they each seated themselves at the briefing table, the last one to sit being Ava, who apparently was not comfortable sitting until she had taken in every detail of the room, as if she was awaiting an attack of some kind… Archer wondered what could have happened to someone so young to make them so paranoid and untrusting.

"Well it appears that you are who you say you are…" began Archer in calm measured tones.

"Told ya!" exclaimed Chase gleefully, earning himself a death glare from Archer, a disgusted snort from Trip and an amused raised eyebrow from T'Prin, before he hurriedly apologised, "Sorry Cap'n, just glad you won't be throwin' us out a port any time soon." He stated grinning disarmingly, a relieved glint in his eye.

"Well great, so they believe us, now what?" huffed Ava irritably, arms folded over her chest in a defensive posture, "We're still stuck in the past here in case you've forgotten, and some of us have more important things to do than sit around wasting time." She sneered condescendingly at the now furious Chase.

"Yeah I'm sure you've got a few nice assassinations to plan." Snapped Chase furiously, to the shock of the Enterprise crew, causing Malcolm to pale dramatically as he looked at Ava in a new light.

Before, the now positively livid, Ava could retort to Chase's furious proclamation Archer interrupted, "Stop!" he shouted, glaring at each of the parties in turn and watching as each huffed and flopped further backwards into their chairs, from the future they might be, but they were still little more than children as their actions proved. "Right, now that that's over, if we could get back to the problem at hand…" he trailed off meaningfully, looking for someone to jump on the opening and start to figure out just what was going on.

"Our scans have indicated nothing out of the ordinary, aside from the nebula…" began T'Pol coolly.

"I am disinclined to think that the nebula has anything to do with our present situation." Stated T'Prin logically before continuing, "There have been no recorded instances of nebulae ever leading to the formation of temporal phenomena, so it is doubtful that it had anything to do with us travelling through time, hence we should probably explore other possibilities." She finished meaningfully, earning herself a look from T'Pol which was probably as close to a glare as Vulcans ever got…

Trying not to smirk at the furious expression on his First Officers face Archer asked T'Prin politely, "Do you have any other theories about what might have happened then?"

"None that are particularly likely." The young Vulcan admitted haltingly, whilst trying, and failing to appear unruffled by her ignorance of what was going on.

"And why are we assuming that this is a natural phenomenon again?" asked Ava sarcastically, glaring at anyone who dared to meet her eye, "I mean the fact that specific people were targeted and pulled through time should be indication enough that someone planned this…"

"Not necessarily," interrupted Harry bravely, earning himself a death glare from Ava for interrupting, "perhaps whatever scanned some of the bridge crew used their DNA as template to search for others from the same blood line or it only brought back the descendants of people who had offspring, hence why not everyone had a descendant pulled through time…"

"Nice theories Starfleet," interrupted Ava angrily, "but I see several small problems with them, one, if it was a natural phenomenon surely it would have taken everyone with the required DNA not just a few people and, two, I know for a fact that it didn't take all the descendents of the crew it could find from our time because Jace isn't here. So I'm betting that this therefore had something to do with someone, so all we have to do is find them, and threaten to blow them smithereens until they co operate and agree to send us back." She finished, smirking triumphantly at the irritated Harry. Not noticing the dazed expressions of the Enterprise crew, who had seen more than a little of their Armoury Officer in Ava's mannerisms.

"Jace?" questioned Trip, a puzzled expression on his face, "Who's that?" he asked, clearly confused.

"Well?" prodded Chase glaring at Ava and urging her to tell them what she knew.

"A friend." Ava admitted grudgingly, before realising that they weren't going to give up until she admitted it all she continued, "Jason Marcus, we grew up together on Seti Omicron IV," upon seeing the blank looks of the Enterprise crew she explained further, "it's a colony in the Demilitarised Zone, close to the Cardassian border."

"Marcus?" questioned Angela curiously, finally deciding to take part in the conversation "as in Dr Carol Marcus and… you know?" she prodded nervously, inclining her head far from subtly towards Captain Archer.

"The very same." Admitted Ava flippantly, dropping her gaze to the chipped nail polish on her finger nails, which she now apparently found very interesting.

Archer was confused by this turn of events, but realising that none of the people in front of him were particularly keen on keeping up this strand of the conversation he dropped it, "So do you have any other theories?" he questioned hopefully.

"It could always be Q," admitted Chase, apparently far from convinced that this was the case, "he does like to play these kinds of games."

"Q?" asked Hoshi tiredly, apparently exhausted and exasperated by today's strange events.

"An omnipotent being with a penchant for playing twisted games on unsuspecting humans." Supplied Harry helpfully.

"OH!" exclaimed Trip furiously, "well that explains everything then!" he snapped dropping his head into his hands and muttering something about being surrounded by crazy people and idiots.

"I couldn't agree more." confirmed Ava dryly.

"What the fuck does that mean?" snapped Chase, his patience with this situation rapidly running out.

"Only that I am stuck on a ship full of ghosts," she gestured furiously towards the Enterprise crew, "and people who want me dead," she gestured towards the time travellers, "and I have no fucking clue how I got here!" she snapped, exasperation, anger, and maybe a little fear tainting her voice briefly, before she seemed to realise what she had done in showing weakness to people she couldn't trust, and jumped up, out of her chair, before spinning on her heel and leaving the room fast, two security officers on her tail, fists clenched at her sides.

"Well now that she's gone…" began Archer, worry tainting his tones before he was rudely interrupted by Chase, again.

"We can tell you what you need to know 'bout her." He gestured furiously towards the door which Ava had just stalked out of. "I know that you have no reason to trust us Cap'n but you have to believe me when I tell you that she can't be trusted." He paused before continuing his rant, "She's a terrorist, a member of the Maquis, a terrorist organisation working against Starfleet. She's a murderer, and back in our time she's wanted for crimes against the Federation, not to mention little things like murder in the First Degree." He finished to the shocked silence of the room at large, "Believe me when I say that she is capable of anything Cap'n, don't underestimate her, the Federation's been tryin' to capture her for years and they haven't managed it yet, just be careful, s'all I'm sayin'." He finished leaning back in his seat to catch the shocked expressions of Archer and his crew.

"I'll bare that in mind." Stated Archer diplomatically, not quite ready to pass judgement on the girl yet.

"You do that." Agreed Chase coolly.

"Right, well, in that case I think this meeting is over." Stated the Captain, pulling himself to his feet, "in the meantime I want you to continue scans of the area and try to come up with an explanation for what might have caused this. As for our guests," he paused, looking towards the group, "they are to be guarded at all times," he stated looking towards Malcolm for confirmation, "but they are not to be treated as prisoners and they will have free reign of the ship." he acquiesced, suddenly very weary of the situation, before suddenly straightening and barking, "Dismissed!"

XXX

Ava was furious with herself for showing weakness to these people and as soon as she had left the briefing room she had stormed off to her newly acquired quarters, accompanied by her guards of course, to get changed into some gym clothes, and take out some of her frustrations in the ship's gym.

She had arrived there about 10 minutes ago, and in that time she had moved from a simple tai chi style warm up to a brutal assault on one of the punching bags, using it to get rid of all her pent up frustration, and unknowingly capturing herself an audience in the process…

People who had been in the gym when she had arrived had already heard who Ava was, and the story of what she had done to Travis on the Bridge, under Lt. Reed's nose had already filtered through the entire trip, so she was understandably a curiosity, especially when you took into account her relationship with the ship's Armoury Officer, but when added to this was the damage the young girl was inflicting to the punching bag, the speed and accuracy with which she moved, coupled with her size and apparent strength, she was quite an intimidating sight to behold, though why a girl her age should ever have to learnt to fight like that was a question for which no-one watching her had an answer.

Ava had even succeeded in capturing the attention of Lt. Malcolm Reed. He had been looking for her after the meeting had ended, curious, in a perverse way, to discover whether Chase had been telling the truth about her and unfortunately, seeing her in action was doing nothing to alleviate his fears on the subject, she clearly had a lot of combat experience, and her hand to hand skills were impressive enough to be seriously worrying those members of his security team assigned to watch her. Chase was right about one thing, they would have to be very careful when handling her…

**Well sorry it took so long but here it is, thanks for all the reviews I got last time, and thank you Commander Rhade for the email, I'm glad to know that someone actually cares about this crazy little story! I'll try and update again soon, but no promises, I have a ton of work at the moment and not a lot of free time, I will finish this story eventually, but expect erratic updates (same goes for all my stories unfortunately). Anyway, please review and tell me what you think, good or bad, please let me know! (I can't improve if I don't know what I'm doing wrong!)**

**Thanks!**

**XXX **


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